the last dinner of the year | cay tre, shoreditch

on the last day of 2014, we kept it quiet. like, really, really quiet. i had really, really wanted to go to ultimate power in kentish town, because they were hosting musical bingo and guilty pleasures, as well as all the immense power ballads in the main room, but by the time we got around to looking into picking up tickets, they were over thirty quid. just to get into the building, and before drinks, dinner, and a cab out of there. it was extortion, and the gang agreed.

i have a love/hate affair with new year's eve; there's always so much pressure to get it 'right'. to wear the right thing, and go to the right party, and have the perfect new year's kiss. there's jacked up prices, lines to get in everywhere, and never a cab when you need one. there's a lot of expectations about this one night every year, and quite frankly, i don't do well under pressure.

so, this year, instead of play up to the hype of the one night where things usually don't go to plan, we decided to do it differently; forget the pressure of the perfect evening, and just do it our way (and by "our way", i do mean "to be in bed with netflix by 9pm). so it was decided that we would go for dinner in shoreditch, have a few civilized drinks, play a few games of noughts and crosses (nic's daughter anabel who is seven joined us!), and then beat the party commuters home to watch the fireworks from our bedroom windows. not a bad plan, eh!
reservations were made at cay tre on old street for 7pm, and it was decided that i would be having the charcoaled pork butt because, pork butt. hur hur hur. despite ordering sides and mains, all the food seemed to...drip out as it was ready. not like at wahaca where they explain that to you first, no, like just because that's the way it works, apparently.

so my pork butt was delivered to me after i'd started my main of pho (that i can't find on the menu anymore?), and rebekah's side of greens came out long before her campfire steak even joined the table, making them a side for... absolutely nothing. granted, it was new year's eve, but... is that a reason to be sold out of the starter we all wanted, and have run out of gin? gin!?
despite the slow service and misplaced drinks (ya huh), we had a really good time. we totally overstayed our welcome, playing far too many rounds of eye spy with anabel and leaving only when we ran out of napkins to play noughts and crosses on.

was the food good? meh. would i go again? neh. have i had better vietnamese in london? oh yeah.